Amy's 'momentary trouble'

Today Amy started her post-operative chemotherapy. Last time it was a six week regimen, this time it will last for 6 months. She will go to Madison once a week for a 30+ minute infusion of the chemo drug Gemcitabine and depending on how her body tolerates the drug, the regimen will be 3 weeks on, 1 week off. I have had many people ask me if all of her margins were clear and if the pathology results all showed a negative presence of cancer, why does Amy need more chemo? Her oncologist answered this question by explaining that Pancreatic Cancer has one of the highest percentages of recurrence compared to other cancers and that patients who show a spread of the disease and who have had the whipple surgery, but do not opt to take the post-operative chemo, only 4% survive longer than 11 months. Patients who have had the Whipple, do not show any spread of the disease and DO NOT opt to take the post-operative chemo, only 15% survive longer than 24 months. Patients like Amy, who have had the Whipple, do not show any spread of the disease and DO opt to take the post-operative chemo, have a 40% survival rate past 5 years. During the chemo, they will be constantly monitoring her blood levels and she will have several CT Scans as well. Amy has been dreading this day for quite awhile and her anxiety has been building over the past 2 weeks or so. Today was extremely tough for her and she was brought to tears many times.

I will write more on Amy’s visit tomorrow…

This is Amy's story as seen and told by me - V